24 March 2017
On Tuesday afternoon TS Royalist sailed into Shoreham Port. The crew took advantage of the strong easterly winds as they sailed towards Shoreham from Cowes. TS Royalist had her first visit to the Port in 2014 when she was docked in the dry dock to have her propeller changed.
TS Royalist is a square rigger Sea Cadet training vessel. Her current voyage will last for six nights and will conclude at Portsmouth on Friday. The purpose of the voyage is to give Sea Cadets a taste of life at sea and offers the challenge of handling sails. Watchkeeping duties and deck work are also part of the experience. TS Royalist takes up to 24 cadets and is open to people aged 13½ to 18.
The current voyage includes 14 boys and 10 girls from cadet units all over the UK, including one cadet from Northern Ireland. In addition to TS Royalist, the Sea Cadets have two training yachts and two power training vessels.
Captain Colin Watkins from TS Royalist commented “Shoreham Port was the ideal place for us to call into for the night. Our crew navigated the lock well and we are extremely grateful to the team at Shoreham for their friendly welcome and their assistance during our stay, especially with the testing weather conditions. Our cadets have enjoyed exploring Shoreham and the surrounding areas and will most likely have stocked up with some sweet treats before we set sail tonight!”
Julian Seaman, Harbour Master and Director of Marine Operations at Shoreham Port commented “It has been a pleasure to host TS Royalist. It is always nice to see a tall ship in the harbour and our staff and stakeholders have thoroughly enjoyed taking photographs and watching her sail in. It is great that the sea cadets have this fantastic opportunity to learn to sail on-board such a magnificent vessel.”
To find out more about the Sea Cadets and how to join please visit www.sea-cadet.org.
